Commercial Law

Commercial law is "the whole body of substantive jurisprudence ... applicable to the rights, intercourse, and relations of persons engaged in commerce, trade, or mercantile pursuits." Of course, an article on commercial law that used this statement to define its coverage would be completely unsuitable for a survey. The Author instead relied on Georgia's Commercial Code to determine the body of law to review in this Article and, accordingly, structured it in a similar fashion. This Article covers case law and statutory amendments from June 1, 1994, through May 31, 1996. The review of Article 9 caselaw includes decisions by federal bankruptcy courts in Georgia as well as those decided by Georgia's state courts.

Most notably, however, is what is not covered by this Article. The Georgia General Assembly recently adopted complete revisions of Articles 3 and 4. Because of considerations unique to that massive undertaking, it has been dealt with in a separate article by Professor Michael Sabbath, who served as the Official Reporter for the revision's consideration by the General Assembly. In next year's survey, Articles 3 and 4 will again be dealt with in this Article.